Romney tells embattled Republican George Santos he ‘shouldn’t be in Congress’
February 7, 2023
U.S. Senators at the U.S. Capitol in WashingtonU.S. President Joe Biden delivers State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Mitt Romney told embattled fellow Republican Representative George Santos on Tuesday that should not be in Congress and shouldn’t have taken a central seat at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
Romney, an elder statesman of the party and former Republican presidential candidate, was seen having a brief exchange with Santos, who has made multiple false claims about his past on his way into the House of Representatives chamber before the address.
“He shouldn’t be in Congress and they’re going to go through the process and hopefully get him out,” Romney told reporters after the speech. “But he shouldn’t be there and if he had any shame at all he wouldn’t be there.”
Romney said he had told Santos as much.
Santos, who represents a New York district, had taken a seat along the center aisle of the chamber, which the president, members of this Cabinet, Supreme Court justices and senators use to enter the hall.
Santos is facing ethics complaints from fellow members of Congress, but the House Ethics Committee has yet to organize for the next two years and thus cannot launch any potential investigation, an aide to Speaker Kevin McCarthy said earlier on Tuesday.
Santos has apologized for “embellishing” his resume but has rebuffed calls for his resignation from constituents and fellow New York state Republicans, saying he would vacate his seat only if he loses the next election, in 2024.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
A key ally of Putin said he wants to invade Poland next, ignoring Russia’s inability to capture Ukraine
Sinéad Baker – February 8, 2023
Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov attends a military parade in the Chechen capital Grozny in May 2022.REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov/File Photo
A Putin ally said he wants to turn to Poland after Ukraine, to “denazify and demilitarize” it.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said “I personally have such an intention.”
Russia has been struggling in Ukraine, but Kadyrov said the war would end this year.
A key ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he wants to invade Poland after Russia takes over Ukraine.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, said on Monday that Poland is in his sights as the next country that Russia could “denazify and demilitarize” — the excuse Russia gave in justifying its invasion of Ukraine.
“What if, after the successful completion of the NMD, Russia begins to denazify and demilitarize the next country? After all, after Ukraine, Poland is on the map! I will not hide that I personally have such an intention,” Kadyrov said on Telegram, according to a translation by the Daily Beast.
“I have repeatedly stated that the fight against Satanism should continue throughout Europe and, first of all, on the territory of Poland,” he added.
It’s not clear how Russia could go about this, given its ongoing struggles in Ukraine, where its military has been bogged down for almost a year in a grinding conflict.
Many had expected Ukraine to be captured within days after the invasion began.
Poland is also a NATO and EU member, which means it would get more support from the West than Ukraine has.
Kadyrov also suggested, without justification, that the war in Ukraine could be over soon, telling a minister that the war would be “over before the end of this year,” according to Russian news agency TASS.
“European countries will admit they have been wrong, the West will fall to its knees, and, as usual, European countries will have to cooperate with the Russian Federation in all spheres. There should not and will never be an alternative to that,” he said.
Ukraine’s neighbors were initially worried at the start of Russia’s invasion that Russia could confront them next, or launch attacks while it was still fighting in Ukraine.
C-SPAN captured a tense back-and-forth between George Santos and Mitt Romney at the State of the Union
Bryan Metzger – February 7, 2023
Republican Rep. George Santos of New York at the State of the Union Address on February 7, 2023.Win McNamee/Getty Images
George Santos and Mitt Romney had what appeared to be a tense exchange at the State of the Union.
C-SPAN cameras captured the interaction, but the two men gave competing accounts.
Following the speech, Santos tweeted that Romney “will NEVER be PRESIDENT!”
Before President Joe Biden entered the chamber to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, Rep. George Santos found himself in an apparently tense conversation with fellow Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.
C-SPAN cameras captured the tense interaction between Santos — the scandal-plagued Long Island congressman — and Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee.
Following the speech, the Utah Republicantold reporters that Santos is a “sick puppy” who “shouldn’t have been there.”
“He should be sitting in the back row and being quiet instead of parading in front of the president,” he told reporters, noting the ethics inquiries Santos faces.
Santos — not exactly the most reliable interlocutor — claimed to Semafor’s Kadia Goba that Romney called him an “ass” and that Santos retorted that Romney is a “much bigger asshole.”
Santos sat in a seat on the center aisle beside fellow Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, giving him the opportunity to shake dignitaries’ hands as they entered the chamber.
He could be seen shaking hands with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip John Thune, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, and even a couple of Democrats: Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Following the speech, Santos tweeted that Romney “will NEVER be PRESIDENT!”
Worried about having a gas stove? Here’s how to limit risks.
Allyson Chiu, The Washington Post – February 7, 2023
Note: This article has been updated to include additional safety information about using induction hot plates.
The raging gas stove debate might have you reassessing how you cook. But replacing a gas stove with an induction stove – a commonly recommended alternative – isn’t always feasible.
Renters are often limited in what they can do. For homeowners, swapping out a gas range can be expensive and complicated, especially if it involves electrical updates.
Still, even if you cannot get rid of your gas stove, you can take several steps to help protect your health and the planet:
Get reacquainted with your other appliances
A whole world of versatile and convenient cooking devices exist outside of your gas stove.
“There’s a lot of appliances available that can address different things you might need to do in the kitchen, and so you can go a long way toward electrifying all of your cooking,” said Talor Gruenwald, a research associate at Rewiring America, a nonprofit group focused on electrification.
Beyond the trusty microwave, you might have one or more of the following appliances taking up space in your kitchen: toaster oven, air fryer, Instant Pot (or some other multicooker), or an electric kettle or hot water heater.
Using them more, particularly for smaller meals, can help reduce the amount of pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, released into your home when you turn on your gas burners. Research has linked nitrogen dioxide to increased risk of childhood asthma and worsening asthma symptoms. A recent peer-reviewed study estimated that about 12.7 percent of childhood asthma cases nationwide could be attributed to gas cooking.
Here are some creative ways you can use your appliances:
– Microwaves: They can do much more than just zap cold leftovers. You can bake (remember mug cakes?), steam vegetables and in some situations even toast, fry or caramelize food. For more detailed tips on how you can make the most out of your microwave, read this article from my colleague Becky Krystal.
– Toaster ovens: Reheating leftovers, such as pizza or fries, that you don’t want to eat soggy? Broiling seafood, vegetables or a cheesy open-face sandwich? Baking savory casseroles or sweet desserts? Most modern toaster oven models can likely do it all. Read more here.
– Air fryers: You can make entire balanced and healthy meals in an air fryer in less than 30 minutes with inexpensive ingredients and minimal cleanup afterward, as my colleague Anahad O’Connor writes. You can also bake in air fryers.
– Instant Pots or multicookers: Aside from its handy pressure cooker feature, they can serve as effective steamers and slow cookers, and are even “equipped with a sauté or sear function, meaning you can use them as you would a pot or skillet on a traditional stovetop,” Krystal writes.
Pay attention to ventilation
If you do need to use your gas stove or oven, it can help to turn on your range hood while cooking, Gruenwald said.
Brady Seals, a manager in the carbon-free buildings program at RMI, a clean-energy think tank, recommends using the rear burners on your stovetop where the range hood can be more effective.
If your hood isn’t vented outside or you don’t have one, you should open your windows, experts said.
“You just want to try to move air and bring in clean air,” Seals said, noting that people can try turning on a bathroom fan. “Even opening a window for five minutes can sometimes be helpful in removing some of the pollutants.”
And don’t forget to maintain your gas stove. Some research has found that unused stoves can still leak methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, as well as other hazardous air pollutants, such as benzene. If you’re concerned about leaks, consider having a professional examine the fittings on your stove, Gruenwald said.
Experiment with induction
You can also buy a low-cost induction hot plate that plugs in to a regular outlet. Models are available with single or double burners.
What’s more, experts say you can turn your gas stove into a makeshift induction cooktop by first closing the gas valve behind the stove and then placing an electric hot plate on top. Make sure to double check that no gas is coming out of your burners and that all the knobs are also turned off. It may be helpful to use a butcher block or other sturdy flat surface to provide a firm footing for the hot plate.
“If you are curious about induction but aren’t able to make the switch because you’re a renter or other reasons, it’s a good way to try out the speed and see all the other benefits,” Seals said.
Black ‘1870’ pins worn by Congress members for State of the Union have deep significance
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus wore black pins with the number “1870” on them, which marks the year of the first known police killing of an unarmed and free Black person in the U.S.
Marquise Francis, National Reporter – February 7, 2023
An “1870” pin to be worn by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and others at the State of the Union address. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos courtesy of the office of Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images)
At President Biden’s State of the Union speech Tuesday in which he addressed the country’s top issues before Congress, members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats made a bold statement of their own — albeit a silent one.
Many of them wore black pins with the number “1870” on them, which marks the year of the first known police killing of an unarmed and free Black person that occurred in the U.S. The pins are a call for action on reforming the institution of policing that has killed thousands of Black people in the 153 years since.
“I’m tired of moments of silence. I’m tired of periods of mourning,” New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat who came up with the idea to create the pins, told Yahoo News ahead of the speech. “I wanted to highlight that police killings of unarmed Black citizens have been in the news since 1870, and yet significant action has yet to be taken.”
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman at an event at the Capitol to demand that Congress renew an assault weapons ban, July 12, 2016. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for MoveOn.org)
On March 31, 1870, 26-year-old Henry Truman, a Black man, was shot and killed by Philadelphia Officer John Whiteside after being accused of shoplifting from a grocery store.
Whiteside had allegedly chased Truman into an alley when at some point Truman turned to ask what he had done wrong, and the officer fatally shot him, according to an account in the Philadelphia Inquirer the following day. At trial, Whiteside claimed he had been ambushed by a crowd while he chased Truman. Whiteside was later convicted of manslaughter. That same year the country adopted the 15th Amendment, which granted Black men the right to vote.
Over a century and a half since Truman’s killing, a steady stream of Black people have been killed by law enforcement, including 1,353 since 2017, according to data from Statista, a digital insights company. In fact, Black Americans are three times as likely to be killed by police as white people are, and they account for 1 in 4 police killings despite making up just 13% of the country’s population.
Many of the parents, siblings and children of Black people killed by police over the last decade were invited to Tuesday’s address as guests of members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The guest list included the families of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was gunned down by Cleveland police in 2014 on a playground; Amir Locke, the 22-year-old fatally shot by Minneapolis police in a predawn, no-knock raid last year; Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old fatally beaten by Memphis police during a traffic stop early last month; and a dozen other families who have lost loved ones.
“I hope today that we can get Congress to see that we need to pass this bill because this should never happen,” Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, said Tuesday afternoon at a press conference with the Congressional Black Caucus. “I don’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers, speaks with reporters on Tuesday about police reform. (Cliff Owen/AP)
In contrast, several Republicans chose to honor members of law enforcement as their guests, including Rep. Mike Garcia of California, who brought Tania Owen, a retired detective and widow of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant who was shot and killed by a suspect when he answered a burglary-in-progress call in 2016. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon hosted police officers from their respective districts.
The invitations came after several other Republicans last week, during National Gun Violence Survivors Week, were photographed wearing AR-15 pins, which were passed out by Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia on the House floor. Clyde claimed the pins were “to remind people of the Second Amendment of the Constitution and how important it is in preserving our liberties.”
Many police reform advocates have argued that the systemic issues tied to policing transcend even racial lines, highlighting the fact that the five main officers involved in the brutal beating of Nichols were also Black.
“Blackness doesn’t shield you from all of the forces that make police violence possible,” James Forman Jr., a Yale law school professor and expert on race and law enforcement, told the New York Times. “What are the theories of policing and styles of policing, the training that police receive? All of those dynamics that propel violence and brutality are more powerful than the race of the officer.”
Karundi Williams, CEO of Re:power, an organization that trains Black people to become political leaders, told NBC News that addressing the core issues is the only way to prevent more killings.
“When we have moments of racial injustice that is thrust in the national spotlight, there is an uptick of outrage, and people take to the streets,” Williams said. “But then the media tends to move on to other things, and that consciousness decreases. But we never really got underneath the problem.”
Protesters in Oakland, Calif., on Jan. 29 to protest the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In 2022 alone, police killed 1,192 people, more than any year in the past decade, according to a new report released last week by the nonprofit Mapping Police Violence. Black people accounted for more than 300 of those killings. The report also claimed that many of these killings could have been avoided by changing law enforcement’s approach to such encounters, such as sending mental health providers to certain 911 calls.
But substantial police reform has continued to lag.
The 2021 George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was put forth following the murder of 46-year-old Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020, seeks to end excessive force, qualified immunity and racial bias in policing and to combat police misconduct. The bill passed the House of Representatives twice in the previous Congress, but has continued to fail in the Senate.
“With the support of families of victims, civil rights groups, and law enforcement, I signed an executive order for all federal officers banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants, and other key elements of the George Floyd Act,” Biden said in his State of the Union speech. “Let’s commit ourselves to make the words of Tyre’s mother come true, something good must come from this.”
Following the recent police killing of Nichols, members of the Black Caucus are cautiously optimistic that change will soon come.
“This unfortunately reignites the fervor and the necessity and the urgency,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee for Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, recently told Yahoo News. “With 18,000 police communities, there has to be a federal law that addresses the training and the relationship between police. We have to restart.”
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the Oval Office last week. (Susan Walsh/AP)
An info card attached to the black pin given to members of the Black Caucus expresses the frustration of numerous police killings from Truman to Nichols.
“153 years later, nothing has changed,” the note reads in part. “We are tired of mourning and demand change.”
McCarthy warns Republicans not to misbehave at State of the Union, promises no ‘childish games’ like Pelosi’s infamous speech tearing moment
Oma Seddiq, Nicole Gaudiano – February 7, 2023
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images; MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
McCarthy swiped at Pelosi ahead of Biden’s state of the union address on Tuesday.
“We’re not going to do childish games tearing up a speech,” he told CNN.
Pelosi infamously ripped up a copy of Trump’s speech after his 2020 SOTU address.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy insisted that Republicans would show proper decorum during President Joe Biden’s state of the union address on Tuesday evening, swiping at former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s viral moment tearing up former President Donald Trump’s speech during his 2020 speech.
“We’re members of Congress. We have a code of ethics of how we should portray ourselves,” McCarthy told CNN’s Manu Raju on Tuesday. “And that’s exactly what we’ll do. But we’re not going to do childish games tearing up a speech.”
Privately, however, McCarthy has expressed concerns about his own caucus’ behavior and has warned them about their conduct, according to CNN’s Melanie Zanona.
Pelosi made headlines when she ripped up a copy of Trump’s speech after he delivered his third state of the union address three years ago. The top Democrat at the time remarked to reporters that “it was a courteous thing to do, considering the alternatives.”
“It was such a dirty speech,” she said.
McCarthy, the newly elected House speaker, will take Pelosi’s previous seat on the platform behind Biden during his address on Tuesday night. The president is planning to lay out his plans to advance his “unity agenda” this year, including policies to fight cancer, help veterans, provide mental health treatment, and fight opioid addiction.
In a closed-door meeting with the House Republican conference on Tuesday, McCarthy and other GOP leaders warned their members to behave during the address, CNN’s Melanie Zanona wrote.
The “cameras are on,” and the “mics are hot,” House GOP leadership reportedly said in the meeting.
Republicans in the past have made headlines with outbursts during past presidential State of the Union speeches, which are viewed by millions.
Rep. Lauren Boehbert of Colorado heckled Biden last year when he talked about how his son Beau’s death may have been linked to burn-pit exposure during his Iraq deployment. She shouted that he put “13 of them” in coffins, a reference to 13 American troops who were killed in Afghanistan during the US’ chaotic withdrawal.
Boehbert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also tried to start a “build the wall” chant last year during Biden’s speech.
“My initial instinct is, ‘Let me walk down and smack this guy on the head. What is he thinking?'” Obama said during a CBS interview in 2020 when his book “A Promised Land” was released. “And instead, I just said, ‘That’s not true,’ and I just move on. He called afterward to apologize – although, as I point out in the book, he saw a huge spike in campaign contributions to him from Republicans across the country who thought he had done something heroic.”
12 of the most unforgettable moments from State of the Union addresses
Shelby Slauer and Rebecca Cohen – February 7, 2023
12 of the most unforgettable moments from State of the Union addressesFormer President Barack Obama during a State of the Union address.REUTERS/Mandel Ngan/Pool
The State of the Union address allows the US president to update Congress on the nation’s progress.
Former President Harry S. Truman’s speech in 1947 was the first to be broadcast on television.
Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of Donald Trump’s speech after he finished speaking.
Parts of Abraham Lincoln’s State of the Union speech were leaked and it prompted an investigation.
His wife was accused of leaking information, but Lincoln said she hadn’t seen the speech in advance.Hulton Archive / Stringer / Getty Images
Hours after Abraham Lincoln sent his State of the Union address to Congress, the newspaper The New York Herald published a few excerpts from the speech that had been leaked. Readers of the paper got to see parts of the speech before it was formally released.
The leak prompted the House Judiciary Committee to launch an investigation into the cause of the leaks in February 1862.
Harry S. Truman’s speech in 1947 was the first to be broadcast on television.
Former President Harry S. Truman giving the State of the Union address.AP/Byron Rollins
In 1947, Harry S. Truman’s State of the Union address was the first to be televised. At the time, television owners were only in the thousands, so most Americans missed his debut, instead listening to it on the radio.
Richard Nixon called for an end to the Watergate investigation during his State of the Union address in 1974.
President Richard Nixon delivering the State of the Union address in 1974.AP Photo
In Nixon’s 1974 address, he called for an end to the Watergate investigation, saying, “one year of Watergate is enough.”
Ronald Reagan invited Lenny Skutnik to the address in 1982, starting a new tradition for State of the Union addresses.
Lenny Skutnik being recognized during the State of the Union speech in 1982.Frank Johnston/Washington Post/Getty Images
Reagan was the first president to bring a guest to honor at the State of the Union address, which began an annual tradition of recognizing everyday American heroes.
Congressional Budget Office employee Lenny Skutnik was honored for saving the life of Priscilla Tirado after an Air Florida plane crashed into the freezing Potomac River. He sat beside the First Lady during the address.
Bill Clinton called for an end to big government during his address in 1996.
President Clinton during one of his State of the Union addresses.AP/ RON EDMONDS
Networks cut away from Clinton’s State of the Union address in 1997 to air the OJ Simpson verdict.
Defendant OJ Simpson during his trial.Reuters
Clinton’s 1997 address was coming to an end right as the jury was about to deliver the verdict for OJ Simpson’s highly publicized criminal trial.
Networks cut straight from his address to the Simpson trial before the Republican response to Clinton’s address was aired.
George W. Bush coined “Axis of Evil” in his 2002 address, marking the beginning of the Iraq War.
George W. Bush giving a State of the Union address.Luke Frazza/Getty Images
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, Bush labeled North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as an “Axis of Evil,” arguing in favor of what would become the Iraq War.
Justice Samuel Alito shook his head in disagreement during Obama’s 2010 State of the Union address.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito prior to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.AP Photo/Pablo Martinez
As Obama criticized the Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance, the camera cut to Justice Samuel Alito, who quietly mouthed “not true,” according to Politico’s reports.
Joe Biden pointed during Obama’s State of the Union address.
Biden’s facial expressions went viral.Fox News
During Obama’s State of the Union address in 2014, many couldn’t help but be distracted by former Vice President Joe Biden’s sudden pointing and laughing behind the president.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fell asleep during Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during Obama’s State of the Union address.Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Justice Ginsburg was caught on camera during Obama’s 2015 address with her head fully bowed, taking a nap.
Later, as per Reuters reports, she explained why her head was down: “The audience, for the most part, is awake, but they’re bobbing up and down all the time. And we sit there as stone-faced, sober judges. But we’re not. At least I wasn’t 100% sober when we went to the State of the Union.”
Donald Trump shrugged off a handshake from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ahead of the 2020 State of the Union.
Nancy Pelosi extending a hand to Donald Trump ahead of the State of the Union address on February 4, 2020.OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images
When Trump entered the chambers to give his 2020 State of the Union speech, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi offered a handshake in an attempt at being cordial with the president.
He seemed to ignore her handshake and walked right past her. Pelosi shrugged it off and was seen shaking her head and looking down throughout the duration of his address.
Pelosi ripped up a copy of Trump’s 2020 State of the Union speech after he finished speaking.
Nancy Pelosi ripping up pages of the prepared speech at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union on February 4, 2020.Mark Wilson/Getty Images
After he finished speaking during his 2020 State of the Union, Pelosi was seen ripping up a copy of Trump’s speech right behind him.
When asked why she did that, she said, “Because it was the courteous thing to do. It was the courteous thing to do considering the alternative.” It is not clear what she meant by “the alternative.”
With Russia back on the offensive after significant Ukrainian combat successes around Kharkiv and Kherson in the second half of 2022, the past few weeks have been the bloodiest so far of an already bloody war, with both sides taking extraordinarily heavy casualties. Expect it to get worse.
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov says Russia has mobilised “much more” than 300,000 troops, perhaps up to half a million, and these are pouring into Ukraine in preparation for what is expected to be a major offensive in the coming days and weeks. Although Kyiv has also been building up its forces and supplying them with modern equipment donated by the West, Putin has a much greater advantage in troop numbers than he did when he invaded a year ago. Despite repeated optimistic reports of Russia running low on artillery shells – a battle winner in this conflict – Putin’s war stocks are vast, and his factories have been working around the clock to churn out even more.
Under pressure towards the end of last year, Russia withdrew its forces to positions of strength, trading ground for time as it massed resources for a planned hammer blow while grinding down the Ukrainians in the east, softening them up for the assault to come. Much of this has been done by infantry attack, throwing away “expendable” troops in time-honoured Russian style. The Kremlin has at the same time been conserving artillery shells (though expending thousands each day around Bakhmut alone) and the armoured vehicles that are so essential for the fast-moving blitzkrieg Putin is planning.
Until now, the narrative in the West has been that Ukraine is comfortably winning this war, albeit while sustaining heavy bombardments on its major cities. The reality is more complex. The latest estimates suggest that each side may have taken upwards of 120,000 casualties already – hardly indicative of a triumph for Ukraine. And there may be worse to come: the truth is that recent promises of new combat equipment for Ukraine – especially longer range missiles, tanks and other armoured vehicles – are unlikely to be fulfilled in time to have an impact in this battle if Putin launches his offensive on the timetable Kyiv predicts.
With so many more men and resources at its disposal, Moscow will be able to sustain higher casualty rates. This is why Russia tends to do better in wars the longer they go on – it can bring more to bear over time. Even today, Putin does not fear high casualties: disproportionate numbers of his troops are recruited from distant provinces rather than cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg, where a stream of body bags could have some effect on what still remains rock solid support for him and his war.
Another concern is that, while Russian forces have performed abysmally – thwarted by low troop morale, inadequate numbers, badly maintained equipment, clumsy tactics, substandard battle discipline, poor logistics, the stiffest Ukrainian resistance and an unexpectedly united effort from the West – some Ukrainian reports from the front indicate the Russians have been learning hard lessons and making much needed improvements, at least at the level of battle tactics and discipline. The Russian army was bleeding before, but it appointed new commanders and – as in the Second World War – may be recovering from its earlier disasters.
We must therefore be prepared for significant Russian gains in the coming weeks. We need to be realistic about how bad things could be – otherwise the shock risks dislodging Western resolve. The opposite occurred last summer and autumn, as flagging support in parts of Europe and the US was galvanised by Ukrainian success.
It is essential that we not only maintain our combat supplies to Ukraine, but step it up even further and even faster. If Putin gains more ground, then Kyiv will need to counterattack more strongly, and will need more armoured vehicles, better air defences, longer-range missiles and vast quantities of artillery shells and ammunition. The only alternative is that President Zelensky is forced to come to terms, handing victory to Russia and defeat to Ukraine and Nato.
Colonel Richard Kemp is a former infantry commander
A 14-year-old thought she had ‘butterflies’ from dancing with a boy at winter formal. It was a heart attack.
Anna Medaris – February 7, 2023
Zeager, now 23, married her husband in October 2020.Courtesy of Ceirra Zeagler
Ceirra Zeager thought her pounding heart was excitement from attending her first school dance.
But it turned out to be the beginning of a heart attack, caused by a congenital heart defect.
Zeager, now 23, is sharing her story as a volunteer for the American Heart Association.
As a high school freshman in rural Pennsylvania, Ceirra Zeager was a wallflower who focused on her schoolwork and art. She didn’t play sports or music, and had just two close friends — one of whom was her sister.
So when Zeager, then 14, went to the winter formal and danced with a boy for the first time, she wasn’t sure how to interpret her racing heart, which continued to pound long after she’d returned home. “I was thinking, ‘Is this how it is to have feelings?'” Zeager, now 23, told Insider.
But the next morning, Zeager’s “butterflies” had morphed into such a deep fatigue and heaviness in her arm that she struggled to put on her shirt. When she tried to walk to her parents’ bedroom for help, her vision narrowed, her ear flooded with warmth, and she collapsed.
“Before I knew it, I was on the floor,” Zeager said. “It felt like an elephant was on my chest.”
Zeager later learned she’d suffered a heart attack, and is now sharing her story as a volunteer for the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women “Real Women” campaign. She wants other other young women to know the signs of a heart attack, and to speak up when they know something is wrong.
A doctor at the hospital told Zeager it was just ‘teenage anxiety’
The morning after the dance in 2014, Zeager’s dad, a pharmacist, saw her on the ground and asked if the family needed to go to the hospital instead of her brother’s birthday party, as planned. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I think we do,” she said.
At the hospital, Zeager said she wasn’t treated like someone in an emergency situation. She waited hours to be seen and developed “an intense burning pain” in her upper arm, but wasn’t given pain medicine. She now knows arm pain is often a sign of heart attacks in women.
“It really broke me to hear that because I felt embarrassed that my whole family was there, and I was ruining my brother’s birthday get-together,” Zeager said.
Still, the doctor recommended Zeager visit a children’s hospital just to be safe. While there, she learned tests had identified a blockage in or around her heart, and that she needed to undergo a cardiac catheterization procedure to identity the location of the clot.
When Zeager awoke from the surgery, more than 12 hours after showing up at the first hospital, she saw her sister crying. “You had a heart attack,” her sister said.
Zeager learned she had ‘sticky’ blood and a hole in her heart
Later testing revealed Zeager had elevated lipoprotein A, which means her red blood cells are “extra sticky,” leading to a blood clot. She was also born with a hole in her heart, called patent foramen ovale (PFO), which allowed the clot to get lodged in her coronary artery, causing the heart attack.
While about 1 in 4 people have PFO, it alone usually doesn’t cause any problems, according to the Mayo Clinic. But for Zeager, the defect in combination with high lipoprotein A levels — something that can’t be controlled through diet and exercise — was dangerous.
Zeager’s treatment included surgery to repair the hole, six months on blood thinners, and a several-week long hospital stay.
Zeager underwent open heart surgery in February 2021 to repair a leaky valve.Courtesy of Ceirra Zeagler
About seven years later, Zeager experienced extreme fatigue, but chalked it up to the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic or planning her wedding. But a cardiologist told her she needed open-heart surgery to repair a leaky heart valve that had been damaged during the heart attack.
Zeager underwent the surgery in February 2021, just a few months after her wedding. The emotional recovery was the hardest part, she said.
“You’re swollen, you’re bruised, you don’t feel like yourself, you’re on all sorts of painkillers, and you’re just barely making it through each day,” she said. While she’s usually a positive person, she said, “In that moment, I was not positive. I was not happy.
Since then, Zeager, now a human resources professional in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, maintains a healthy lifestyle, but still has an “ejection fraction” — a measure of heart strength — around 44%. A healthy range is 50% to 70%, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
That may mean she’ll be unable to safely carry a pregnancy. “Having that taken away from you as a woman is very, very hard,” she said.
But Zeager finds comfort in spreading her message. “Listen to your body, advocate for yourself, and try to find the silver lining,” she said. “It’s cliche, but it’s so true.”
As climate change and overuse shrink Lake Powell, the emergent landscape is coming back to life – and posing new challenges
Daniel Craig McCool, Prof. Pol. Sci., Univ. of Utah – February 6, 2023
The white ‘bathtub ring’ around Lake Powell, which is roughly 110 feet high, shows the former high water mark. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
As Western states haggle over reducing water use because of declining flows in the Colorado River Basin, a more hopeful drama is playing out in Glen Canyon.
Lake Powell, the second-largest U.S. reservoir, extends from northern Arizona into southern Utah. A critical water source for seven Colorado River Basin states, it has shrunk dramatically over the past 40 years.
As the water drops, Glen Canyon – one of the most scenic areas in the U.S. West – is reappearing.
This landscape, which includes the Colorado River’s main channel and about 100 side canyons, was flooded starting in the mid-1960s with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona. The area’s stunning beauty and unique features have led observers to call it “America’s lost national park.”
Lake Powell’s decline offers an unprecedented opportunity to recover the unique landscape at Glen Canyon. But managing this emergent landscape also presents serious political and environmental challenges. In my view, government agencies should start planning for them now.
A tarnished jewel
Glen Canyon Dam, which towers 710 feet high, was designed to create a water “bank account” for the Colorado River Basin. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation touted Lake Powell as the “Jewel of the Colorado” and promised that it would be a motorboater’s paradise and an endless source of water and hydropower.
Lake Powell was so big that it took 17 years to fill to capacity. At full pool, it contained 27 million acre-feet of water – enough to cover 27 million acres of land to a depth of one foot – and Glen Canyon Dam’s turbines could generate 1,300 megawatts of power when the reservoir was high.
Soon the reservoir was drawing millions of boaters and water skiers every year. But starting in the late 1980s, its volume declined sharply as states drew more water from the Colorado River while climate change-induced drought reduced the river’s flow. Today the reservoir’s average volume is less than 6 million acre-feet.
Nearly every boat ramp is closed, and many of them sit far from the retreating reservoir. Hydropower production may cease as early as 2024 if the lake falls to “minimum power pool,” the lowest point at which the turbines can draw water. And water supplies to 40 million people are gravely endangered under current management scenarios.
These water supply issues have created a serious crisis in the basin, but there is also an opportunity to recover an amazing landscape. Over 100,000 acres of formerly flooded land have emerged, including world-class scenery that rivals some of the crown jewels of the U.S. national park system.
“On the walls, and back many miles into the country, numbers of monument-shaped buttes are observed. So we have a curious ensemble of wonderful features – carved walls, royal arches, glens, alcove gulches, mounds, and monuments … past these towering monuments, past these oak-set glens, past these fern-decked alcoves, past these mural curves, we glide hour after hour.”
This side canyon emerged in recent years as Lake Powell shrank. The white ‘bathtub ring’ on the rock wall shows past water levels. Daniel Craig McCool, CC BY-ND
Glen Canyon remained relatively unknown until the late 1940s, when the Bureau of Reclamation proposed several large dams on the upper Colorado River for irrigation and hydropower. Environmentalists fiercely objected to one at Echo Park in Dinosaur National Monument on the Colorado-Utah border, alarmed by the prospect of building a dam in a national monument. Their campaign to block it succeeded – but in return they accepted a dam in Glen Canyon, a decision that former Sierra Club President David Brower later called his greatest regret.
New challenges
The first goal of managing the emergent landscape in Glen Canyon should be the inclusion of tribes in a co-management role. The Colorado River and its tributaries are managed through a complex maze of laws, court cases and regulations known as the “Law of the River.” In an act of stupendous injustice, the Law of the River ignored the water rights of Native Americans until courts stepped in and required western water users to consider their rights.
Tribes received no water allocation in the 1922 Colorado River Compact and were ignored or trivialized in subsequent legislation. Even though modern concepts of water management emphasize including all major stakeholders, tribes were excluded from the policymaking process.
There are 30 tribes in the Colorado River Basin, at least 19 of which have an association with Glen Canyon. They have rights to a substantial portion of the river’s flow, and there are thousands of Indigenous cultural sites in the canyon.
Another management challenge is the massive amounts of sediment that have accumulated in the canyon. “Colorado” means “colored red” in Spanish, a recognition of the silt-laden water. This silt used to build beaches in the Grand Canyon, just downstream, and created the Colorado River delta in Mexico.
But for the past 63 years, it has been accumulating in Lake Powell, where it now clogs some sections of the main channel and will eventually accumulate below the dam. Some of it is laced with toxic materials from mining decades ago. As more of the canyon is exposed, it may become necessary to create an active sediment management plan, including possible mechanical removal of some materials to protect public health.
The creation of Lake Powell also resulted in biological invasives, including nonnative fish and quagga mussels. Some of these problems will abate as the reservoir declines and a free-flowing river replaces stagnant still water.
On a more positive note, native plants are recolonizing side canyons as they become exposed, creating verdant canyon bottoms. Restoring natural ecosystems in the canyon will require innovative biological management strategies as the habitat changes back to a more natural landscape.
Finally, as the emergent landscape expands and side canyons recover their natural scenery, Glen Canyon will become a unique tourist magnet. As the main channel reverts to a flowing river, users will no longer need an expensive boat; anyone with a kayak, canoe or raft will be able to enjoy the beauty of the canyons.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which includes over 1.25 million acres around Lake Powell, was created to cater to people in motorized boats on a flat-water surface. Its staff will need to develop new capabilities and an active visitor management plan to protect the canyon and prevent the kind of crowding that is overrunning other popular national parks.
Other landscapes are likely to emerge across the West as climate change reshapes the region and numerous reservoirs decline. With proper planning, Glen Canyon can provide a lesson in how to manage them.
